My Not so Quiet Opinions on the News

Jim Sykes is the head coach of the Men’s Basketball team here at Morningside. During his time here, he has put together one of the most impressive coaching resumes since he was promoted to the position of head coach in January of the team’s 2003-2004 campaign. He has recorded a .647 winning percentage, and a 277-151 win loss record (Coaches). Jake Brand, a current student at Morningside and a former men’s basketball player said, “Coach Sykes is a really good guy. He’s always been very professional on and off the court, and has never been rude to me.”

But how did Sykes make it to Morningside? Why did he decided to become a coach? In an interview with Sykes in the spring semester of last year, I found out the answers to these questions.

Jim Sykes first decided he wanted to be an elementary teacher and a coach after he was influenced by his 6th grade teacher Mr. Neumeier. Athletics were always at the core of what Sykes wanted to do. He played several sports in school, and thought the coaching aspect might be fun as well. “I figured if I wasn’t good enough to play, maybe I’d be good enough to coach,” Sykes said in the interview.

When Sykes first started working as a teacher and a coach, he was teaching elementary school in Waverly, Nebraska. He helped as an assistant coach on the football team, and was the head coach of the basketball team. He said that the sport he chose to be the head coach for was a close call. He liked the atmosphere that football provided, but also liked being able to coach five guys on a court, and being in charge of both offense and defense. Zach Polk, a Morningside alumni and former basketball player under Sykes said, “His coaching style is intense. You have to be able to handle the intensity of his coaching style or you might crumble under the pressure. You have to realize though, he’s doing the things he’s doing because he wants the team to succeed.”

The chance to coach at Morningside was an opportunity for Sykes. An acquaintance of his got the head coaching position for the Men’s Basketball team, and asked if Sykes would be interested in being his assistant. As was stated earlier, Sykes gained the head coaching position after being promoted there in the middle of the 2003-2004 season.

Morningside Freshman Mari Pizzini from Helena, Montana just had a short story published by The Kiosk on campus. Pizzini, a 2017 graduate from Helena High School wrote a short story on her last few days in Montana, before moving to campus for classes.

When asked about the publication of her story, she said, “I love writing, and honestly, I’ve wanted to be an author since I was about eight years old.” She also said that this was her first submission to The Kiosk, and her first story to be published ever.

Pizzini has decided to continue writing stories, and try to be published again. She said that she will probably continue to write short non-fiction and documentary type stories, because she likes telling people the truth.

Sondra Thoreson decided that one word that would describe herself well was neutral. She said it worked because she doesn’t really go to extremes, and just kind of sits in the middle.

Thoreson didn’t really have one particular story to tell, but instead made her story one about her life. “Throughout my life, it seems that if I had one extreme, I immediately went to the other,” she said. “I had a pretty bad temper when I was little. If something didn’t go my way, I’d throw a massive fit. Just throwing stuff and screaming.”

“As I got older though, I started to mellow out. By the time I got into middle school, I kind of didn’t care about anything at all. I just let whatever happened happen.”

Thoreson now finds herself in the same shoes as many college students. Sometimes she does get a emotional, and other times she doesn’t. “Now that I’m in college, I kind of go back and forth. Sometimes I get angry, whether it be at an assignment, or a person, and sometimes I just don’t care about what’s going on.”

According to the New York Times, Syria announced during climate talks with the United Nations that it would sign the Paris Climate Accord. This move follows the decision made by Nicaragua to do the same last month. This agreement leaves only the United States to sign the Accord. According to many people present at the talks in Germany, the Syrian delegate said that the country was ready to send its ratification of the agreement to the U.N.

Syria has been fighting a civil war since 2011, and was subject to European and American sanctions. This made it extremely difficult for them to send a representative when the Accord was first drafted.

National

According to usnews.com, last Wednesday Twitter announced that it removed its verification mark from several controversial accounts. Many prominent far-right figures complained that conservatives were being targeted by this move by the social media giant. The verification guidelines were also updated to involve information detailing when account verification could be revoked. All these moves came after the uproar caused by the verification of the organizer from the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Jason Kessler, the rally’s organizer, tweeted that the social media site was trying to censor him by making the policy changes. Twitter removed the verification for his account, but had not blocked him, or any of the other users that lost their verification marks, from continuing to use the site.

Local

Mustang Football is once again your GPAC Champions. This makes the seventh year in a row for the Mustangs, and the good news doesn’t stop there. The Mustangs went undefeated on the season, which helped them out for the postseason to come. By going undefeated on the year, Morningside clinched itself the number three spot in the nation for the season, giving it a home field advantage for at least the first two rounds of the playoffs.

In the first round the Mustangs faced off against the Sterling Warriors. The Mustangs won the game 63-7, and got ready for their next game in the second round. They will face off against the St. Xavier Cougars, who also won their first round game.

Nat Simpson is a freshman on Mornignside’s campus, and is actually quite unique.

While Nat has chosen to major in graphic design, she hasn’t quite figured out what she wants to do with it. He also hasn’t figured out what she wants as her minor, or cluster, but has hopes for something good.

When asked what made her unique, she said, “I don’t have a favorite anything. Like nothing at all. No favorite color, or food, or movie. Oh, but cats are my favorite. I like cats.” She also said that she knows a lot of cat facts.

She likes to hang out with her friends. Most of the time they’re playing games. “We do a lot of the Pathfinder thing,” she said. “You know, the whole D&D thing.”

If they aren’t playing games, they’re making late night Wal-Mart runs.

She as a job at Hy-Vee, and said that she was just looking for a place to make money, and that she applied in the middle of the night.

She said that most of her motivation to do things comes in the middle of the night. This would explain the late night Wal-Mart runs, and the middle of the night application to Hy-Vee.

Feminism is something that can be highly questionable, but some people are trying to bring what they believe the true meaning of feminism is to the sport light. One such person is actress Emma Watson.

Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, gave a speech yesterday at the One Young World conference. She talked about what becoming an activist has done to her life. She said, “I was very nervous before that speech; the nerves were followed by a tremendous high immediately afterwards, and a crashing low a few days after that.”

Watson went on to talk about how her decision to start the HeforShe campaign was like opening, “a Pandora’s Box,” of standing ovations, and a level of critique that turned into threats.”

I went to Buffalo Wild Wings to eat tonight with my friends. There really wasn’t one person that I could focus on, mainly because there were so many people there that were reacting to things that were happening either in the building, or on the TV’s.

There were two football games, two basketball games, and a hockey game that were playing on the multiple TV’s that they had in the building. The game that the most people were reacting to though, was the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Tennessee Titans game. There were a couple of good defensive plays from the Steelers that elicited cheers from customers in the restaurant.

There was a table close to mine where one guy threw his hands in the air for those plays, and he kept a close eye on the game. When it looked like the Steelers were going to do well, he was bouncing his leg up and down, and when they were doing well, he was sitting so far forward in his seat it was amazing that he didn’t fall out of it.

Another guy was watching the Boston Celtics vs. Golden State Warriors game. He would pound on the table when things weren’t going the way he wanted, though he was to far away for me to be able to tell who it was he was cheering for.

One thing that everyone in the building had in common was that they were all watching a TV to see the outcome of a game. Hopefully the team that they were cheering for won.

What started as a beautiful day yesterday ended in horror. Richard Brunson and Laurette Kenny Brunson were married on their front porch at two in the afternoon. Neieghbor Vicki Holmes had this to say; (Vicki soundbite)

Later that evening, things escalated, and shots were fired. We have the police report from Sergeant Mann; (Sgt Mann soundbite)

If you have information on the whereabouts of Richard Brunson, please contact the authorities.

In the deep waters making up the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, a treasure trove can be found on the lumps of metallic ore that litter the bottom. The ore itself is valuable, but it’s the sponges that attach themselves to the ore nodules that scientists are interested in.

According to sciencenews.org, this new species of sponge was reported by researchers on September 24th. These newly discovered deep sea residents may help scientists monitor environmental impacts caused by deep-sea mining.

To make tracking the effects caused by the mining on deep-sea ecosystems easier, scientists are eager to setup a baseline of existing biodiversity. Especially in regions like the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (C-C-Z), which lies in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and is littered with the ore nodules.

This new sponge could very well be the key to that baseline. After samples of the ore nodules were retrieved from the C-C-Z in 2015, scientists noticed patches of snow-white sponges on the ore. It was believed to be a new species, and was later proven by DNA analyses. The proximity of the sponge to the ore may make it the perfect canary for this new coal mine.

One of the most popular games of 2017 is Destiny 2 (D2). The game was released on September 6th, and has only picked up followers as time has gone on. One month into the game, and each week has brought on the addition of something new, whether it was the Trials of the Nine, the guided Nightfall Strike, the Raid, or most recently, the reintroduction of the Iron Banner.

Veterans of the previous game and newbies alike have given great acclaim for the young game. In interviews taken from two people who have never played the game, and one person who has played through the first, and is now working on the second, more about this game can be found out. The interviews with the two who haven’t played the game were taken after they played the first mission of D2.

Jake Brand, someone who has never played the previous game, said, “It’s better than Halo, but not as good as Call of Duty.” This is a pretty big statement though, since Bungie, the developer of Destiny, is also the developer of Halo. Brand said that he liked the brighter colors of the game, and some of the action sequences. He also said that if he had played the first game and liked it, he probably would have bought the second. He also said, “It’s not my type of game. My type of game is more of the sports games.”

Caleb Deemer, another person who has never played Destiny, said, “I’m not normally into space-age games, but it was fun.” Deemer liked that the game had a little bit of a faster pace, had a good first-person view, and was better than he thought it would be. He felt that some of the smaller details could be improved, but not much else. When asked if he might play it in the future, he said yes, when he didn’t have to rely on the online multiplayer side of the game.

Kyle Mackey is a veteran of the game, having played the first Destiny up until D2 came out. Mackey said that the things he liked were the fluid game mechanics and the graphics. “They actually have a solid story line this time,” Mackey continued. When asked since he had played the first game, did it make him want the second game more, he gave a resounding yes. He also said that he probably spends an average of seven and a half hours a week on the game.